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Say Gwen

Say Gwen

By Peter Filichia — This month’s Friday the 13th can be considered both lucky and unlucky for Broadway. It would have marked the 87th birthday of Gwen Verdon, and we’re all pretty sad that we don’t have the lady around to celebrate both her and her achievements. But, oh, aren’t we lucky that her parents […]

And the World Goes Round – Original Cast Recording

And the Year Starts Up

By Peter Filichia – So what was the first recording in 2012 that you chose for your listening pleasure? For the twentieth straight year, I started New Year’s Day by playing the CD that I got in late 1991: And the World Goes ‘Round. It’s the recording of the revue that celebrates John Kander and […]

For New Year's Eve Stay-at-Homes

For New Year’s Eve Stay-at-Homes

By Peter Filichia — As that famous Frank Loesser song asked, “Here is the jackpot question in advance: what are you doing New Year’s Eve?” Most will party, but many know that it’s a good night to stay in and do comparatively nothing. Sometimes Dec. 31 can mean panic in the streets – which might […]

Not Your Average Christmas Show

Not Your Average Christmas Show

Peter Filichia – So what would be the most logical Broadway musical to open on Christmas Day? Why, Here’s Love, right? After all, it’s the musical of Miracle on 34th Street. But Here’s Love opened on Oct. 3. Annie would be another candidate, because it concludes on Christmas. But it debuted on April 21. Would […]

Do Re Mi – Original Broadway Cast Recording 1960

Broadway’s First Jukebox Musical

By Peter Filichia — You’re in the middle of holiday shopping. You want to get something nice for that couple next door and their toddler. But you don’t have much do-re-mi. For the adults, get the original cast album of Do Re Mi. The musical that opened nearly 51 years ago at the St. James […]

Peter Filichia is the theater critic emeritus for the Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey and News 12 New Jersey.

He is a columnist each Friday for www.mtishows.com and www.kritzerland.com.

Filichia is the author of Let’s Put on a Musical, now in its third printing; Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit of the Season / The Biggest Flop of the Season and Broadway Musical MVPs 1960-2010: The Most Valuable Players of the Last 50 Seasons. His new book, Strippers, Showgirls, and Sharks will be published in May, 2013 by St. Martin’s Press.

He has been a columnist for Playbill, Theater.com, Theatermania and Theater Week.

Before joining the Theatre World Awards in 1996 as host and head of the selection committee, Filichia served four terms as president of the Drama Desk. He has served on an assessment panel for the National Endowment for the Arts, and is currently critic-in-residence for the University of Cincinnati-Conservatory of Music and the musical theater judge for the ASCAP Awards program.